E04 - Ch 17: Undoing

Aelric tensed at the voice, then he saw her standing on his far left, there was absolutely nothing playful about her smile now. There was only danger. And those eyes. It was as if he was looking into the eyes of a demon.

Brint's earlier words about how the village truly saw Aelric and his family momentarily left his mind and all he could feel was the fear for his life.

The Tainted, Elder Sharp had said. Brint had said her name was “Syl.” This Syl had bound them for some terrible reason, he could feel it in his bones. Once again, he struggled against the chains of arcana that held him to the tree. It was useless, it was as if he struggled against ancient stone, he could not move a linta.

He knew she had cast another spell on him, but this time it had been different. He woke with the memory of her visit intact, and judging by the remaining daylight in the sky, he had not lost much time. It seemed he had been asleep though he could remember no dreams, only becoming very drowsy as Syl cast her spell. As before, he could not remember her incantation, nor what the creature that extended out of her hand had said to him.

He wanted to scream for help just as he had threatened to do with Brint. But he knew he couldn't. She was an Ascendant. An arcanist. She was more powerful than any villager. Even if there was a chance that someone was nearby, they would only be swept up in her evil plan. There was nothing anyone could do to stop her. The only people who had any chance to chase her off were perhaps the village hunters. But they would all still be at the festival right now, still discussing the duel. And if not there, then back in their homes after a day of feasting.

"What do you want?" Aelric demanded. He needed to know what this was all about. Why had she bound them together?

"Hush now," she said with a wave. She did not look at him, her eyes were focus on the other side of the tree where Brint was. The glowing orange chains that bound him now began to crawl up his neck and around his mouth, spreading into smaller chains as they bound around his cheeks. He was shouting then, but his voice became muffled, and he regretted not calling for help earlier when he still had the chance.

"Come here," she said to Brint, gesturing with her finger, and Aelric saw lift into view, the chains still wrapped around him as others broke off from the tree.

"Why have you bound us, Syl?" Brint's voice was defiant and it seemed to lack the fear of Aelric's.

"Why do you think we are here?" she said. "Has some important event not just recently occurred? Is there not a change in how anyone would make their estimation of you now? What reason do I have to accept you as pupil now?"

"I was holding back," Brint said, his voice more desperate now. "I didn't want to permanently injure him."

"That's how weakly you hold onto your principles?" The Ascendant gave him a look of disgust. "Because you did not want to injure your opponent you were willing to give up everything? My tutelage, your future as the chieftain of your village, the woman you claimed to love? What a disappointment. I can't believe how wrong I was about you."

Brint paled at those words, as if he were seeing his whole life shatter. "No! I can still learn! I can still lead—"

"Don't be ridiculous," she spat, and each word seemed to hit Brint's spirit like a blow. "Who would want you as chieftain now. Who would want you as their husband? Who would want you for anything? You are a defeated lowlife, Brint. You are nothing and you deserve nothing. It is one thing to lose a duel, but is another entirely to lose to a boy who has an arcumen of two arcas. Two arcas, Brint! Tell me, what has your arcumen grown to today?"

"I—I—" Brint began, pale as death and face quivering with shame.

"Tell me!"

"Six-hundred and eighty-two," Brint whispered.

Aelric could not believe his ears. It was an absolutely staggering amount. It was likely as great an arcumen as all the elders combined. It meant that Brint generated over twenty-thousand arcana a month. He would not have to work for another day of his life and still be able to provide for all of his family and his future children and grandchildren.

"Six-hundred and eighty-two," Syl repeated. "Even a little more than when we met two days ago. And you lost to a boy with only two. You are not only a disappointment, Brint. You are a disgrace to all who know you."

"I'm sorry," Brint said, and tears began to leak down his face. "I shouldn't have held back."

"That's right!" The Ascendant lurched forward. "You should not have held back! What kind of man holds back when so much is on the line? A coward!"

"No," Brint said. "No, it's not true. I'm no coward! I can still learn from you!"

Syl reared back, the anger leaving her expression, her face becoming still. "You've wasted my time, Brint. I had high hopes for you. I even gave you some of my precious spell talismans, thinking that you could become a great arcanist one day."

"I still can!"

"No, you can't. But you'll pay for wasting my time. You can be sure of that. And you'll pay for the spells I gave you. And what you can't afford, your family and your village will pay for."

"No!" Brint cried. Pure desperation filled his face now. Even Aelric could no longer stand to watch the scene unfolding before his eyes. He hated Brint, but this was too much. He used to daydream about having Brint at his mercy the way the Ascendant woman had him now. But it hurt Aelric to see his old friend like this. There was no trace of Brint's usual arrogant demeanor. He looked like a scared little boy. Then there was what Syl had threatened. Their village. Aelric feared how she would make them pay. If what Brint had told him were true, the whole village was struggling more than he had previously realized. He knew he had to get out of his binds, but no matter how he struggled, the arcana chains held him tightly in place.

"This is my fault," Brint continued, his voice quavering. "They have nothing to do with this. Please… please forgive me. I was wrong, I'll pay you back myself."

Syl laughed. "You? You think you have enough to pay me for my time and the spells I gave you? Do you know what it means to be an Ascendant?"

Power flashed from Syl and the space all around her glowed. Small particles of blue light bloomed from her chest. Not two moments ago, Brint's power had left Aelric awestruck, but this was multitudes greater. It was boundless. It was more than all of the arcumen in Village Aldin. It was more than all of the Five Villages combined.

Syl held her hands aloft. "You could have had this, Brint. But you chose the coward's path instead."

Aelric didn't understand what she was saying. How could she offer such a thing to Brint? One's arcumen was the gift of the gods. There was no improving it once it was settled. And what had she said about Brint's arcumen having grown since they first met two days prior? It was impossible, but it seemed Brint believed her words.

"No! Please, Syl. Master! I will do anything. Let me learn from you, tell me how I can make this right!"

Syl’s smile spread across her face like cracked glass as if Brint had said the words she had been waiting for. The chains around Brint fell slack and Brint collapsed to his knees before Syl.

"Tell me, then," the arcanist said, lifting Brint's chin. "Why did you summon the spear after your loss?"

The question caught Brint off guard. "Th-the spear?"

"That's right. I gave you that spell. Did you think I'd not notice you summon it?"

"N-no reason, I was just angry."

Syl shook her head. "Don't lie to me. It was not just me, everyone saw what you were planning to do with it, Brint."

"I wasn't going to do anything with it."

"Don't lie," Syl spat and pointed in Aelric's direction. "You were going to kill him!"

"No!”

Syl grasped Brint's neck, lifting him to his feet with a strength that belied her lean body. "Lie to me again, and I will kill you myself. Tell me what you intended to do when you summoned the spear! Tell me how you felt! Tell me the truth! What did you want to do to Aelric?"

Aelric watched in horror as Brint turned his eyes and met his gaze, his words barely a whisper, "I—I wanted… him dead."

"Yes, that’s an honest boy," Syl purred, letting go of his throat and turning him fully to face Aelric now. A terrible fear pulsed through Aelric's entire being. He felt he knew what she wanted and what was coming.

"You asked what you could do to undo your cowardly mistake, so I shall tell you. You must take the path of the warrior. You must defeat your opponent. You must kill him."

Horror spread across Brint's features and he dropped to his knees once more. "I can't… I can't… that is murder…"

"Think carefully now." Her voice took on a silk-like quality that made Aelric's skin crawl. "You can undo your mistake. Prove to me you are not a coward, Brint. And remember…" behind Brint, Syl drew a red circle in the air and a long tentacle extended out of her hand, "what he cost you."

Aelric was screaming at the top of his lungs, fighting the chains with every fiber of his being. He had to warn Brint. She was casting a spell on him. She was going to make him do something that wasn't true to his will.

It was no use. Syl whispered the spell. "Demon tongue, Rile."

For the first time, Aelric heard the spell, but he knew Brint wouldn't for he was its target just as he had not heard the spell each time when one had been cast on him.

The head of the tentacle opened its jaws, revealing its horrible teeth and spoke something into Brint's ear. Brint's eyes rolled backward, and closed. When he opened them again, there was bright fury in his eyes.

"Remember," Syl continued, drawing her spell closed, "how he shamed you in front of your father. Your entire village saw what he did to you."

"Yes," Brint said, a deep furrow creasing between his brows. "He took everything from me."

"Everything."

Aelric struggled and screamed. He hit his head against the back of the tree trunk trying to break from his chains until it turned raw and bloody.

"He shamed me," Brint said, a tear rolling down his left eye. He steadied himself with his right hand on the ground, lifting one knee, and with he lifted his left hand, extending it as orange light began to coalesce into its palm.

"He did."

"He stole Feyna from me."

"He stole her."

Brint's eyes were far and hollow, his body rigid and for a moment it seemed almost as if he would not continue. But then Syl gripped his shoulder and leaned down beside him. "Make the incantation."

"Asterlance." Orange light shot out from both directions of Brint's fist and hardened into a sleek deadly spear.

Aelric could not breathe. His mind was screaming. A thousand thoughts came to him all at once, but the loudest was that this was the end. He was going to die. And the last image of his life would be Brint dealing his deathblow as Syl smiled with dead eyes from behind.

He tried to think of his parents. He tried to think of Feyna. But all he could think was that his life had been too short.

Brint raised the spear back, readying for the throw.

Aelric wanted to close his eyes. All sound had disappeared. He could hardly think, and yet he couldn’t look away.

Brint swung the spear, and just as he did, he dropped himself to the ground as a mound of dirt slammed into Syl from the side, sweeping her away and sending her tumbling. Brint let go of the spear and placed the hand onto the forest floor beside the other that Aelric now realized had been bright with glowing arcana.

Two more mounds rose up and slammed down on where Syl lay with far greater force than Aelric had ever received. One after another they came, three, four, five, leaving no time between each attack, the ground shaking and the sound deafening as they rocked the earth with their crashing power.

The arcana chains around Aelric suddenly evaporated, and Aelric dropped from the tree, catching himself with his hands outstretched, and his head turned upward as he watched the final mounds of forest earth slam into the spot that Syl had fallen.

The ground had been upturned and impacted into a hard dense layer of dirt. There was no sign of Syl. Stunned, Aelric’s eyes found Brint who tried to stand before dropping back to one knee and catching himself with a hand on the ground. He was breathing hard, glaring at where he had buried her.

“There,” he said between breaths. "This time I didn't hold back."

Aelric stumbled forward, looking at the spot where Brint's mounds had crashed into Syl then back at Brint.

"I-I actually thought you were going to kill me."

Brint smiled weakly. "I was angry at the duel, that's true. But that was the heat of the moment. I'm not a murderer, Aelric."

Aelric nodded. "I know… but the spell she cast…"

"What spell?" Brint said.

"You didn't feel it?" Aelric said. "It was the same kind that she'd cast on me before. I mean they're different ones, but they always involve a tentacle that comes out of her hand."

Aelric saw a flash of recognition in his eyes.

"A tentacle…" Brint repeated. "Now that you mention it, I did hear a voice speaking to me just before I summoned the spear. I heard the same voice in my dream. It was a tentacle there too."

"You had a tentacle dream?" Aelric ask.

Brint gave Aelric an odd look and reddened.

"What?" Aelric said.

"Don't say it like that. Makes me think of the weird stories Welder Jo likes to tell when he's had too much cider."

"But you did?" Aelric said, having no idea what stories Brint was referring to. Welder Jo never told him any stories.

"Yeah," Brint scrunched his face as if trying to recall the dream. "There were six or seven of them. They were all talking. Each had a name and a different voice."

"What did they talk about?"

"We should probably discuss this somewhere else, don't you think?"

Aelric caught Brint's meaning and looked back at the mound of earth that Brint had buried Syl under. "Yeah sure… but… she's got to be… dead… right?"

"Probably." Brint looked back at the mound. "I hope so. She's absolutely crazy. I hope Ascendants aren't all like her."

"Why did she want you to kill me so badly?"

"I have no idea. None of it makes any sense. But I'm glad it's over n—"

The dirt on the mound had begun to shake. Something was moving beneath.

"You've got to hit her again!" Aelric exclaimed. "Quick before she gets back up! Quick! What are you waiting for?"

Brint gave Aelric a blank look. "I've spent all my arcana."

The boys stared at each other for only a moment longer and then they were dashing through the forest at the fastest speed their legs could take them.

"We've got to warn everyone!" Aelric shouted at Brint as they ran through the trees, dodging upturned roots and outstretched branches.

"I'll tell my father and the other hunters!" Brint shouted back as he leaped over a shrub. "You tell the elders!"

"Yeah!" Aelric shouted back. It was a good plan. Elder Sharp already knew of Syl's danger, hopefully he had already informed the other elders by now.

Just as the trees began to thin before them, an ear-piercing scream reached out from behind.